Environmental Information Resources on the Internet

by William B. Feidt and Catherine Roos

With the astounding growth of the Internet over just the last few
years has come a concomitant increase in the number of environmental
information resources available on the Net. These resources come in a
bewildering array: mailing lists, Usenet newsgroups, gopher servers and
World Wide Web (WWW) servers, among others.

While this article will focus on Usenet newsgroups and some WWW
resources, a broader overview of environmental information sources is
contained in A Guide to Environmental Resources on the Internet, by
Carol Briggs-Erickson and Toni Murphy. Last updated in October 1994,
the guide is available via the following URL: gopher://una.hh.lib.umich.edu/00/inetdirsstacks/environment%3amurphybriggs

Usenet

Usenet is an excellent place to stay abreast of recent happenings
and topical discussions. Usenet may be thought of as the world's most
extensive bulletin board system, with over 10,000 active,
subject-oriented conferences, known as newsgroups. Each newsgroup
focuses on a single broad topic.

Subscribers to a group "post" articles (messages) which can then be
commented on ("followed up") by other subscribers. An original message,
along with all of its follow-ups, is called a thread. Anyone may read
the accumulated threads in a newsgroup. Due to the sheer volume of
Usenet news postings, older messages are normally deleted. Although
message life varies from group to group, it is typically about two
weeks.

To read newsgroups, users need access to a news server, which is
often available through Internet Service Providers (ISP). The server
maintains a database of Usenet articles and "serves up" groups, threads
and articles as they are requested. Every news server maintains its own
database of Usenet articles, generally accessible only by the clientele
of the particular ISP. Not all ISPs carry all the newsgroups; in fact,
some are quite selective. It is not unusual for an ISP to decline to
carry any of the massive "alternative" (alt.*) hierarchy.

In addition to a news server, users need a newsreader to access
Usenet. The reader interacts with the server by translating user
requests into a form that can be understood by the server. It also
formats for screen display the information returned by the server.
Internet service provided by a shell account generally uses a UNIX-based
reader, such as "rn," "nn," "trn" or "tin." When service is provided
through a direct network connection, a SLIP account or TIA software, a
desktop reader, such as NewsExpress, Trumpet Newsreader or WinVN, can be
used.

Many newsgroups deal with environmental issues to varying extents.
Some groups most directly related to the environment are listed below.
The number of postings (messages) in each group on the server the
authors used in late December 1994 is given in parentheses.

sci.environment (318)

talk.environment (181)

alt.destroy.the.earth (51)

alt.energy.renewable (96)

alt.org.earth-first (11)

alt.save.the.earth (26)

alt.sustainable.agriculture (19)

bionet.population-bio (10)

ca.environment (29)

sci.bio.conservation (0)

sci.bio.ecology (182)

sci.geo.eos (14)

sci.geo.meteorology (149)

sci.geo.oceanography (33)

uk.environment (14)

za.environment (4)

Several foreign language newsgroups, such as the following, are also
available on the Net:

cl.gruppen.greenpeace (German)

fido.ger.greenp (German)

francom.environement (French)

tw.bbs.soc.green-earth (Chinese)

Environmental discussions also take place in more general groups,
but finding relevant threads among the thousands of conferences is a
challenging undertaking. A few likely candidates for investigation are
alt.activism; alt.disasters.misc; and misc.activism.progressive.

To provide a flavor for the kinds of discussions that take place,
the following list shows a few of the current threads in the group
sci.environment. Numbers following the asterisks indicate the number of
articles (original posting plus follow-ups) in the thread. Where no
asterisk exists, only an original article has been posted.

World Wide Web

The "Web" is comparable to Usenet in that it operates in a
client-server architecture. WWW servers are operated by those wishing
to provide information to the Net. Information consumers, on the other
hand, use client software, known variously as viewers, browsers or
readers, which interact with servers to obtain information requested by
users.

Among the currently popular WWW viewers are Mosaic and Netscape.
The viewers require "TCP/IP to the desktop," which can be achieved
through a direct network connection, a SLIP or PPP account, or TIA
software with a shell account. WWW information can be accessed through
a shell account using a character-based (VT100) viewer known as Lynx,
which delivers the textual portion of WWW pages, but the graphical
component is always difficult, and sometimes impossible, to configure.

Resource discovery is perhaps the most tenuous aspect of WWW use.
There are so many server sites available that it is often difficult to
find the ones that deal with a specific category of information.
Fortunately, some Web sites have tackled the problem by categorizing and
grouping Web information resources. "Yahoo - A Guide to WWW"
(URL:http://akebono.stanford.edu:80/yahoo/) provides an
excellent entree to environmental information, with 191 sources
currently listed in its "Environment and Nature" category. Yahoo also
lets its users search WWW-space by keyword.

These and other indexes provide an excellent point of departure for
investigations of environmental resources, but they do not include all
relevant sites. Further areas worthy of investigation include
governmental agencies at all levels; non-profit and other private
organizations; and universities.

For those interested in federal law and policy regarding the
environment, the League of Conservation Voters maintains a service
detailing information about how Congressional representatives vote on
key environmental legislation, a summary rating of each representative's
environmental voting record and an explanation of each of the issues
considered. The site can be found at URL:
http//www.econet.apc.org/lcv/scorecard.html.

New Web resources come online daily, further complicating navigation
of the network. But users who remain in touch with newsgroups often
stay on top of the new products and services. Two groups which do a
good job of announcing many of the new and interesting sites on the Net
are comp.internet.net-happenings and comp.infosystems.announce.

Conclusion

The Internet contains a wealth of environmentally related
information, much of it of considerable significance. The future
information specialist will not be able to perform effectively without
access to this resource. Although problems in gaining access to the Net
and its resources abound and are likely to continue for some time, it is
a wellspring that cannot be ignored.

William B. Feidt (wfeidt@cpcug.org) is an information technology
specialist for the National Agricultural Library. He has taught
introductory courses on Usenet and Gopher for the Capital PC User Group.
Catherine Roos is a librarian at the National Library of Medicine and
chair of the DC Online Users Group.